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Monday, December 10, 2012

Chip off the old block

Today is my dad's birthday. So, I would like to say happy birthday to him. The guy has been working since he was twelve and just this year finally retired. While at the National At Home Dad Convention in DC, we visited the Air and Space museum. I was looking in the gift shop for something for the kids and I laid my eyes on one of those Apollo Space pens.

If you have ever seen the Seinfeld where Jerry inherits the space pen from his dad's friend down in Florida you know what I am talking about. This pen is supposed to be able to write underwater, under extreme temperatures; basically a pen that is as bad ass as an astronaut being launched into space. I have never personally been to space although I have come close when I made an attempt to brave Mission: Space at Epcot before Susie and I were married. Let's just say I will never be going into space even if we somehow figure out how to live up there. You see, I get extreme motion sickness. So even though I knew this, I still tried to be brave and go on it with my wife. Even when I spend a weekend up in the Adirondacks and am going in and out of fishing boats, I have after effects when I get back on land.

Anyway, back to the pen. I thought this was the sort of pen that could stand up to my dad's adventures in retirement. In fact, his response to me in email was that he loved the pen and hoped that he wouldn't have to use it to write underwater. Bernholdt's have bad experiences with plumbing.

I was looking at my scrapbook today and came across photos of myself with my dad. My mom did an awesome thing a few years back. She took all the photos of my brothers and me and separated them into bins. She then created a scrapbook for each kid. An amazing project given that I have three brothers and our family is a bunch of photography nuts.

It is awesome to see pictures of me with my dad. What is more awesome is seeing the resemblance between myself and my son. Same blue eyes, same mop of hair and same goofy smile. My dad however maintained his "Bow" which is that wavy thing on top of his head in the picture below. The Bow didn't last long after my younger brother was born however so you can glean what you want from that what you will. I am glad that I have this time with my Mini-Me at home and thanks dad for all that you did for me. Happy Birthday and I love you.